Dina Bangdel

Director of Art History

Contact

Specialization

South Asian and Himalayan Art

Education

PhD, The Ohio State University

MA University of Wisconsin, Madison

BA Bryn Mawr College

Biography

Dina Bangdel is a historian of South Asian and Himalayan art, with secondary areas of interest relating to issues of gender and identity in South Asian contemporary art and film. Her interests in the early modern period focus on the ritual and ideological functions of Buddhist art in South Asia, including theories of ritual performance and politics of identity.

Her research focuses on the art and ritual traditions of Newar Buddhism in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal and the development of Tantric Buddhist iconography of the Himalayan regions, principally Nepal and Tibet. Her research and teaching include contemporary South Asian art, and her current publication “Contemporary Nepali Art: Narratives of Modernity and Visuality” draw on social history, post-colonial and feminist theory.

She has also curated several exhibitions, including Circle of Bliss: Buddhist Meditational Art (2003, finalist for the Alfred Barr Award for best exhibition catalogue) at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Pilgrimage and Faith: Buddhism, Christianity and Islam (2010) at the Rubin Museum, New York, Prakriti Speaks: Contemporary Nepali Art (2011) in Mumbai. Dr Bangdel teaches courses on the art and architecture of South Asia, visual cultures of Tibet and Nepal, contemporary arts of South Asia, and South Asian film. She is Associate Professor and Director of the Art History program at Virginia Commonwealth University-Qatar.

“Visual Histories of Svayambhu Mahacaitya: The Mandala Iconography of the Great Stupa,” Light of the Valley: Renewing the Sacred Art and Traditions of Svayambhu, edited by Tsering Gellek and Padma Maitland. Berkeley, California: Dharma Publishing, 2011.